Living with the Devil
by MiskWisk
Summary: In a valley with two statues born from conflict, two attacks collide in a great release of power. Simultaneously, in the void between worlds, two beings of great power clash. The four energies combined rip a hole between worlds. As one Naruto Uzumaki starts a new life, the consequences will shake the worlds.
1. Chapter 1

Living with the Devil

"Text" = Regular speech

_"Text"_ = Thought

**"Text"** = Demon/very, loud deep voice

Chapter 1: Journey to a devil

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or High School DxD. If I did, I wouldn't be putting these up for free.

Many years ago, the Valley of The End was forged in the clash between Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. Their power had carved a great scar in the land, their fight reshaping a great tract of land giving birth to the now iconic valley. The great waterfall was flanked by statues of the two titans of the shinobi world, built to forever mark the site of one of the most destructive battles in history between two men. Now however, another battle, between two young boys was being fought, less destructive but no less intense for the two fighters.

On one side of the valley stood Sasuke Uchiha. Gone was the image of the proud, handsome young boy that girls swooned over, his appearance changed and distorted by the curse mark that he drew ever more power from. His once fair skin now replaced with an ash grey colour while his once onyx eyes were now black with crimson irises. The most unusual aspect of his eyes though was the three tomoe present in each eye, a clear sign of the sharingan, the legendary dojutsu of the Uchiha clan while a black, four pointed star adorned the centre of his face. From his back sprouted two giant webbed hands, a cruel mockery of wings. His clothes were a black shirt with white trousers, although both items would likely need replacing due to the muck and grime they had accumulated. In spite of the fierce fight he was in, his face remained impassive with only the barest hints of a smirk gracing his lips.

The blonde in question was one Naruto Uzumaki. Despite the bright orange clothing that he wore, the major attention grabbing point was the red cloak of energy that covered his form. His once startlingly blue eyes dyed a bloody red with pupils elongated to slits. These, combined with his thick, dark whisker marks and a mouth that was pulled into a vicious snarl exposing sharpened canines, the boy looked more like a vicious animal than a shinobi. The cloak did nothing to dissuade this either, as two long fox like ears of energy sprouted from his head while a bubbling tail swished rapidly back and forth behind him. This was the jinchuriki of the fearsome Kyūbi no Kitsune and right now, he certainly looked the part.

As these two faced down each other, they thought on the path they had taken to get to this point. Of becoming shinobi of their village, Konohagakure. Of the Land of Waves and the invasion which led to the death of the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Of the offer of power, enough to end the life of Itachi Uchiha. Of the decision to leave and the decision to return. They thought about all this and more.

Naruto once more attempted to lift his left arm however it was clear at this point it was out of the fight for good. At this point, the arm was dead weight in the fight, a weakness to have to protect. Naruto grimaced at this; he certainly never took the easy options.

For his part, Sasuke began to form the hand seals for his most devastating close range move. As the chidori formed, the once brilliant blue lightning now a vile black and white mix, Naruto raised his right arm and formed his favoured close range move, the rasengan. The cloak, acting as a shell for the technique, dyed the normally blue and white sphere a vibrant purple.

As their muscles tensed, Naruto could only question why it had turned out like this. Sasuke was- no, is his friend. He is his brother in all but blood. So why was he going to a madman who he knew only desired to use and then discard him? It made no sense to the blonde, even with his mind tainted by the rage of the beast sealed inside of him.

A sudden shift in Sasuke's posture was all the warning Naruto received before the final attack began. As Sasuke blurred forwards dragging his lightning covered hand behind him, so too did Naruto, the oddly coloured rasengan hefted at his side.

Before the two reached each other, they leapt and time seemed to slow as they got closer to each other. Techniques at the ready, they tensed their airborne bodies for one final clash.

"_CHIDORI_"

"_RASENGAN_"

As the attacks collided, the energies rippled and pulsed as the two fighters sought to finally end their bout. A sphere of black energy formed over the two as air was forced away from the sphere, the lake below thrashing with waves.

Suddenly, the energy that pulsed outwards was pulled in, the sphere growing smaller and smaller until it finally vanished, leaving no trace of the two shinobi.

This was the scene one Kakashi Hatake appeared to. An empty valley, signs of a brutal fight and no trace of the two boys he had been after.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in another place, two more beings clash with their full fury. In an endless sea of colours do these two collide, their power sending out terrifying ripples that crashed against the very walls of reality itself.<p>

One was a dragon. A colossal one topping out at around 100 metres long, with red scales and a single large horn, this is the Great Red, the True Dragon. Beams of energy lanced towards him but, with a kind of grace that one would not expect, he swam around the vast majority, with only a mere few colliding. However, even those few beams caused devastating explosions to form. Despite the might of the attack though, the massive dragon merely ploughed through the smoke, roaring fiercely as he charged at his opponent.

His opponent meanwhile was slightly harder to classify if one did not know of her. Unthreatening and with an extremely fluid form composed of a strange energy, the other being continued to launch beams of energy before being forced to shift her form out of the way to avoid the large beasts charge. This was Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, currently focused on fighting the perceived intruder to her home. As the dragon rushed past her, Ophis launched a wave of energy, striking the side of her foe. Despite the sheer amount of power Ophis used though, she achieved nothing more than a mild scorch mark.

This was not going to plan. That was Ophis' thought at this time. She had originally thought that she could battle the Great Red with her powers augmented with the energy drawn from other worlds to finally defeat him. It had been a long shot, she would admit that much, but she had wanted to try one last time to force the intruder from her home. After all, if this failed she would just have to go with plan B and bring up her Khaos Brigade to make up the difference in power.

For the Great Red's part, he was just wondering when she would flee, as she always did. Honestly, couldn't she just leave him alone? She could just let him fly around so long as she didn't stare. As it was though she was incredibly annoying and, though he didn't show it, her attacks hurt damnit!

As the two squared up for another clash, Ophis felt a wave of energy suddenly pulse from a distant world. If her current form would have allowed it, she might have grinned. It was certainly not an insignificant amount of power and even if she failed there might be some benefit to this little experiment. Focusing in on the source, she mentally frowned at the small barrier set up around that world. It wasn't insurmountable, nothing could stand against her after all (bar one being that shall be ignored), it was enough to distract her.

Sensing her distraction, the Great Red struck, releasing a thick wave of energy that threw off her concentration, causing her to misjudge the amount of power she needed. As a result, instead of siphoning off the power gently through the cracks, she instead yanked the power source through in surprise making a small hole in the barrier.

From the hole came something neither she nor the Great Red expected. Two boys, one clad in a rather hideous orange and blue tracksuit, the other appearing more demon than human were launched through. Ophis, thinking quickly tried to grab for the power she had sensed one of them had. However, much to her surprise, the power fought back. It lashed and snarled at her in an attempt to deny her will. She couldn't have that now could she?

As she once again pulled at the power, she noticed the demon looking boy slip through one of the cracks made from the fight. She would probably have to do something about those later. As soon as she felt the power begin to give, she put a little more force into her attempts and pulled away a little over two thirds, causing the remaining boys red energy field to flicker and pulse before he too slipped through a crack.

Again mentally frowning, Ophis regretted not getting the rest of the energy from the boy. However, she soon noticed that something, or rather someone, had gotten over the initial surprise of her actions and was already moving to attack her. Setting aside the matter of the two boys and the energy which seemed to be rather docile now, she prepared to once again clash with her foe.

For the Great Red's part, he merely thought how interesting it was that the two boys had not been erased immediately on their passage through the void. After all, it took quite some magical protection to survive in the Dimensional Gap. Oh well, it wasn't his problem. He still had a pest to chase off.

* * *

><p>Rias Gremory was a rather pretty young thirteen year old. With her fair skin, blue-green eyes and waist length, crimson red hair with loose bangs that framed her pretty face, she cut quite a nice image. Coupled with the fact that she was already developing quite sizeable assets, it was clear she would be a knock out beauty in a few years.<p>

She was also a devil.

More specifically, she was a devil of one of the 34 remaining pillar families, the noble Gremory clan and the younger sister of the Crimson Satan, one of the four great Satans who govern the Underworld, Sirzechs Lucifer. As such, she had high expectations set for her as she was the heiress as well as being merely a high class devil. As such, she was taking a small vacation from her family and the endless tasks she had to deal with working day to day. She loved her family, she really did, but sometimes she just wanted to get away from it all and relax with no one to bother her.

It was why she had come out to this clearing after all. It was rather bland all things considered. Bordered by a small wood and filled with long grass and only a single tree in the centre for shade, it was utterly unremarkable. Hence the reason she came here. No one would really look for her in such an ordinary place as her families land had far more relaxing features to visit.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to remain here long. When her brother realised she wasn't in her usual spots he would probably have a panic attack wondering where his sweet "Ria-tan" had disappeared off to and send out the servants and his peerage to find her as well as call in favours from the other great Satans – again.

Still, she would enjoy the peace while it lasted.

As she lay there, her thoughts wandered. After forcing aside a certain unpleasant bird that seemed to pop up more and more, they focused on that of her steadily growing peerage. Currently, she only had three members bar herself. The first was her best friend Akeno Himejima. Akeno had been a young girl she had saved from being killed by her family, a thought that caused her mouth to crinkle in distaste, and reincarnated as her queen. She had grown very close to the black haired girl and enjoyed spending time with her and although her developing sadist side was a little off putting, she couldn't bring herself to care.

The second addition to her peerage was the young rook, Koneko Toujo. Koneko had been scheduled for execution on the crimes of her sister as well as racial hate for her being a youkai, more specifically a Nekoshou, a type of cat youkai. The little white haired girl was unfortunately traumatised from the ordeal and had closed off her emotions to everyone. It had taken a long time to get her comfortable to show even the miniscule amounts of emotion she currently showed to the family.

Her final addition was a recent one. A young blonde boy she had found nearly dead on the frozen ground in Northern Europe and had reincarnated as her knight. He was currently a little standoffish – okay, very standoffish – at the moment and had refused to tell them more than the bare basics of the so called "Holy Sword Project." Rias had, like most of her family, been disgusted by the actions of the church, though she suspected Sirzechs already knew some of it anyway. Like Koneko, she had to give the boy a name as he did not have one, unless you counted a serial number anyway. As such, she had dubbed him Kiba Yuuto. He had scoffed. Right now he was training with her brother's peerage, more specifically the Knight Souji Okita who has a much better relationship with the boy. She could only hope he would continue to open up more.

As she continued to think on this, her thoughts turned to what she would use her last pieces on. She currently had a rook, a knight, eight pawns, a bishop and a rare mutated bishop piece left to use. She was unsure on what she wanted to do with the remaining pieces. She wanted to use them, obviously, and give herself a large group of friends like her brother Sirzechs had, but she was unsure which method to use.

As it stood at the moment, she could either continue with her current "wait and see" method to gaining a peerage or actively seek out more members. The first method she felt was far more personal and much better for building up a strong familial bond with her peerage. On the other hand, actively seeking members would fill her peerage more quickly and she would be able to ensure their abilities beforehand and as such, they would be more helpful. This didn't prevent her from building the bonds she wanted, but it simply felt too business-like to appeal to her. Then again, maybe she could-

Her internal monologue was cut off rather suddenly when she sensed a pulse of energy coming from almost directly above her. Looking up, she saw what looked like an orange comet speeding towards the ground before a loud thump indicated contact with the ground just on the edge of the clearing.

Naruto was rather hesitant to open his eyes again. Last time he had tried he had got a glimpse of a whole lot of colours, a huge dragon and a weird energy thing that had hurt to look at. He was also somewhat concerned. The Kyūbi, which had been giving him a running commentary off how pathetic he was, had cried out before suddenly going silent. It was mildly worrying, not that Naruto particularly cared for the bastard fox, it got what it deserved if it got hurt. More, he was worried that whatever caused that reaction would be coming for him next. Still, he was confident he would figure something out; he always did when things were looking down. He did have to admit though, a few too many of his plans went along the lines of "charge at thing, punch thing till thing stops moving" with anything else really being made up as he went along. Oh well.

After what felt like hours of being buffeted around by a weird "not wind" wind, during which time he had a small feeling of discomfort come from his stomach, he felt wind, actual wind begin to hit his skin. Opening his eyes, he nearly whooped in joy. The colours were gone! He could see trees, he could see the sky and the clouds and the ground. The ground in particular seemed pleased to see him too, as it was rushing at him very fast.

Naruto had a few seconds to process this before a flat "WHUMPF" sounded throughout the area.

**Author's Note: It's happening! I am actually not procrastinating on my first fic too much (touch wood). At 2,800 words not including the AN or anything else, I now have a huge appreciation for people like Third Fang who can pull off those monster chapters of theirs. I also pray to god that I managed to get the paragraphs right.**

**Well, as you can see, I am trying to write a Naruto/High School DxD crossover. A little odd for someone who has an inherent dislike for harems and I am not entirely sure I should be trying a crossover for my first attempt at writing fanfic, but it is the most developed fic I have at the moment. I chose a VoTE Naruto for the simple fact he has a lot of potential for character development. I also don't have to worry too much about him being out of line power wise and can instead increase his abilities at a sensible rate. The pairing is currently leaning mostly towards Rias but I am still quite undecided. If I do end up making this a harem, and that's a big IF, it will be at most three girls and Asia will not be a part of this. Neither will Ophis or Grayfia actually.**

**I do have a couple plans for the future too that I think are a little original. I hope they pan out well. There are three that I have specifically set up this chapter. Two are somewhat obvious, or at least parts are but the third I like to think is more subtle. I did have a scene that made the third more obvious, but I cut it out because I want to leave it a surprise.**

**On the peerage, Rias is only missing Gasper from canon and I do not really much of a timeline for joining so I hope I got this right. Right now, Kiba still hasn't accepted anyone other than Souji so he will be a little different from canon start Kiba. The next chapter should hopefully feature more of the characters themselves rather than just events.**

**I am not entirely satisfied with the small part between Ophis and the Great Red but I needed it to set up future events. I don't like it when I flashback shows what should be a major plot point just before said plot point comes up or even after it has passed. That just smacks of retconning and I will do my best to avoid that. I also know Ophis is technically genderless, but I was getting more and more upset having to constantly write "it" and rearrange sentence structure to make things work before I gave up and just called her a "she."**

**I will try to update regularly although I make no promises as it depends on how life feels like treating me and whether I start my other story ideas. If you do check out my ideas, be sure to pm me if you feel like writing them as bar this fic and another one, I wouldn't mind turning them into challenges.**

**Anyway, I'm signing off now. Please review and give me lots and lots of criticism! Flames will be burnt.**

**Miskwisk away!**


	2. Chapter 2

Living with the Devil

Chapter 2: Meetings with a devil

**EDIT: Thank you to VGZ for pointing out a big mistake I made!**

**Well, I think I can safely say my writing is inoffensive. If I haven't sent out a pm to one of the people who reviewed, it is either because I want to keep quiet on that point for now, or can't think of anything to say. Probably the latter. Or you are a guest reviewer in which case I will respond now.**

**Reviewer: Thanks for the nice review! I am really glad you agree with some of my decisions. In regards to the peerage, I plan on explaining most of it in the chapter after this one.**

**Guest who mentioned the peerage: My story had developed in my head when this crossover section was smaller but a lot of the stuff that I have thought of didn't come until much later. Also, I do not have enough confidence as a writer yet, if ever, to pick a new peerage. I would like to try that one day, but it won't be today. Also, glad you agree on the harem.**

**Guest who mentioned the harem: The harem will only come about if I feel that I can work in multiple relationships without screwing up. That is not likely even if I do have a few thoughts.**

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or High School DxD. The only things I do own are a beat up car and my laptop. Also, yes, the wing mirrors came as different colours.<p>

After returning to her family's estate, Rias had immediately commandeered the servants help with her little orange problem. As she looked at the door to the room he had been placed in, she allowed her thoughts to wander once more.

_Flashback_

After locating comet that had disturbed her relaxation, she had been shocked to find it to be a short, young boy. The boy had sun kissed blonde hair and was wearing a rather bright orange tracksuit with a little blue and white on it. It was clear however that he had been attacked or been in a fierce fight. His left arm was swollen and he was covered in bruises. His right side was in awful condition, the tracksuit covered in blood with a hole in the back over what looked like a freshly healed wound. The fall clearly hadn't been soft either as a small crater had formed from the landing, a sign of exactly how far he had fallen. It did however demonstrate how durable the boy was though as the ground had broken first from the landing, even if such a feat wasn't exactly rare in the supernatural world. There was however, nothing to explain how he was covered in what was presumably his freshly spilt blood but with wounds that had already been healed. Had someone capable of magic and sent him here after healing him?

She could clearly sense the boy was human, although it did make the question of how he seemingly appeared so high in the sky and where he came from more pertinent. Not only that, but she could sense a fair bit of power in him. It was quite a surprising amount and to make matters more confusing, she could not place the energy even though it felt familiar to something she felt before. She was, however, sure it was not magical energy.

Once she reached him, she flipped him onto his back to get a better look at his face. She saw he was quite cute, in a boyish sort of way with a round face. He had three whisker marks on each cheek which caused her to raise her eyebrow. However, the biggest draw hole on the tracksuit, just below the right shoulder showing that whatever had hit him had pierced a sizeable hole through the boys shoulder. It had definitely been a specialised piercing attack though. Both scars were too neat, even after healing, with no way to discern which side was an entry wound and which was an exit. This only surprised her more; an ordinary human would be hard pressed to survive such a wound without access to some very potent healing spells. Perhaps this energy had something to do with saving his life.

As she reached down to touch his face, the boy's right arm suddenly whipped up and latched tightly onto her wrist, startling her. As she looked down however, his eyes, which were a rather impressive shade of blue, were glassy and unseeing as well as dilated pupils. She wasn't even sure he was actually conscious, which intrigued her even more that his body was apparently conditioned to react in a way to deter people from damaging him. Idly, she noticed the grip itself was quite firm and she could see the lean muscles on his arm through the tracksuit.

He was actually quite well-muscled too. It was surprising to see because the kind of physique he had was one that not many humans had, especially at his age. He had definitely been trained to fight then. His build in particular suggested a brawler style, unlike her blonde knight's whose body had been thin and lean, more suited to a speed type fighter.

Blinking and focusing in on the grip, she noticed his hand was becoming looser before he finally let go and the arm collapsed to the ground, eyes shutting again. Quickly checking the boys pulse, she found that his heart had already stopped.

Checking over the boy, she realised she would not be able to get him to medical attention in order to resuscitate him in time even with teleportation magic. The energy he had, which had been fluctuating wildly, had already begun to decline. He truly was at the brink of death.

As this thought came to her, she realised how this reminded her of her knight's reincarnation. He had been injured and near death, stranded in the wilderness and barely responding to the world around him. The fact both had blonde hair only served to reinforce the comparison. She realised that she could have another member of her peerage lying before her. He would certainly be a good member of the peerage after all; the signs of training were there to see. His large stores of energy, whatever it was, had certainly caught her interest and she was fairly sure even if she let him go, he would be picked up by another devil or maybe another faction. The only question would be what piece to use.

While the amount of energy the boy had was impressively large, his actual magic reserves were nothing to write home about, meaning he would make a poor bishop. The knight maybe, but his build was short and stocky, similar to a brawler rather than a speed type fighter. That left the rook and pawn pieces. On one hand, the pawns would allow him a lot of versatility with the promotion ability. If she was wrong in her judgement of him, then at least he wouldn't have to learn a style of fighting that didn't suit his mind set or went against previous training. On the other hand, if she was right about him and he was a brawler, then the rook would be a perfect fit. With the enhanced durability and strength, he could simply charge in, take damage and then dish out more.

After a few more seconds of thinking, she ultimately decided on the rook piece as if his value was more than the rook, she could simply swap to the pawns while using the pawns first could prevent her from recruiting a high value person in the future. This would be a win for everyone, as the reincarnation would give her a new little brother and save the young boys life.

Pulling out the rook piece, she smiled down at her future peerage member before beginning the ritual.

_Flashback end_

That had been nearly eight hours ago and it was getting dark outside. After teleporting back to the estate, she was greeted to the site of panicking servants headed by a near hysterical Sirzechs. Apparently, they too had sensed the release of power and with Rias not being present, Sirzechs had apparently decided that she needed rescuing while many people were worried about the release of unfamiliar power and what it was caused by.

After getting the greeting from Sirzechs out of the way, which consisted of much consoling and promising him that his "Ria-tan" was indeed fine and no, she did not need to visit a doctor, did she finally manage to bring the attention to her new rook. For his part, Sirzechs had started gushing about how proud he was of her before his wife finally moved in and dragged him away while instructing Rias to take him to the family's servants took the boy away to rest until he woke up.

After that, she had called for summoned her peerage and briefed them on the newest member.

_Flashback_

Rias was looking around the small, relatively speaking anyway, lounge area that she had called for her peerage to meet in. The room was nicely furnished with a large couch that sat opposite a high backed chair with a small table in between. The table had a small amount of food, although someone had already grabbed a plate of cookies, along with a tea set. Pouring the tea set was a young, black haired girl with fair skin and an already developing figure. Akeno Himejima, queen of the peerage, daintily placed the tea pot down and placed the cups in front of their recipients before moving to stand at Rias' right hand. Her eyes were violet and she had a pleased, gentle smile on her face.

Currently hoarding the cookies at one end of the couch was a petite, white haired girl with hazel eyes by the name of Koneko Toujo. She surveyed the room with a disinterested expression, although there was a certain hardness to her gaze that was at odds with her young appearance. Indeed, her eyes sometimes flicked to spots of the room where shadows gathered, as if to reassure herself that, yes, they were in fact empty. This caused Rias to inwardly frown; Koneko had stopped this sort of behaviour some time ago, so what could be causing her to act like this now?

Finally, at the other side of the room was a somewhat angry looking blonde boy. He looked around at the occupants of the room as though he was not interested in events around him; however it was clear from the tenseness in his shoulders he was uncomfortable being surrounded like this. Internally Rias sighed at this, despite being her knight for some time now, Kiba, as she had named him upon finding out he didn't have a name, had not opened up to anyone other than her brothers knight and even then that was more for training purposes. Inwardly, she hoped he would at least open up to the new member, if only because he was the old "new" guy.

Seeing everyone was settled, or at least as settled as they could be, Rias cleared her throat, drawing all eyes to her.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice everyone. As you know, a short time ago there was a large pulse of energy near the estate. While I do not know the cause of the pulse, a young human boy appeared and crashed near me. Due to his injuries, he died shortly after I found him but I have reincarnated him into the newest member of our little peerage."

Briefly scanning her eyes over the conscious members of her peerage, she quickly gauged their reactions. Akeno, for her part, merely looked as interested as when Koneko, and later Kiba, had been reincarnated. Kiba had merely looked bored, although there was a small curiosity present. Koneko on the other hand…

"Koneko-chan, is everything alright?" Rias asked.

Indeed, if Koneko had been tense before, now she was downright twitchy, or at least as twitchy as the normally apathetic girl could be while simultaneously appearing both uninterested with the world and keeping her plate of cookies on her lap.

"It… I'm not sure Rias-sama." Internally, Rias yet again frowned. Koneko still hadn't opened up as much as she hoped and was clearly nervous about something. Rias was also upset about the –sama suffix. She really needed to find something better than that to be called since she couldn't get any of them, bar Kiba who had been raised in a more European culture, to call her something less formal. In fact, if Grayfia gets her way, which, Rias conceded, was rather likely, even Kiba would have to call her something similar.

"Well, if you're sure Koneko."

"Ara, ara. A new little brother so soon. I do hope our dear Rias-sama is not getting bored of us already."

At this Rias shot Akeno an annoyed glare. Akeno had been teasing people more and more lately. It only became clearer that she was deliberately winding her up as the smile on her face grew wider. Rias could only hope that it would be a short phase.

Kiba grunted at this display and stood up, saying, "Well, if that's all then I'm going to find Okita-sensei and get back to training." With that, he left the room with Koneko wordlessly hurrying out with the plate still in her grasp. Rias only hoped she would remember to give it back to the kitchen staff this time.

"They still don't trust us, do they Rias?"

"Not really Akeno, but they'll come around eventually." The _'I hope'_ remained unspoken.

_Flashback end_

After the short briefing, Rias had chosen to wait in the same lounge near the room for her new rook to wake up as she wanted to greet him properly as soon as possible. Then maybe she could find out who her new rook was. Until then, she could get back to reading the workbooks that Grayfia had forced on her as soon as her rook was taken away by the staff.

* * *

><p>The first thing that Naruto noticed when he woke up was he was not in the hospital. How did he know this? The bed was actually comfortable for starters. Secondly was there was no smell of anti-septic or medicine. So, where was he then?<p>

When he opened his eyes though, he screwed them shut immediately before slowly opening them as they got more used to the light in the room. The room in question was quite expensive looking, with red walls that had gold panelling. Looking around, he saw a fine looking wardrobe, again red with gold panelling and there was a small mirror next to it. Someone had also decided to take the liberty of giving him new clothes, specifically a set of red pyjamas.

"Okay, where'd I end up now?" he muttered, pawing at his eyes.

Taking another look around, Naruto saw that the light in the room came from a small crack in the curtains of a tall window that was behind the bed. Gingerly, he shifted himself to get a view of the area outside before realising there was a stunning lack of pain. _"That's odd, usually the fox takes a lot longer to heal me, plus I should be hurting all over."_ Shrugging off the fact his body was fine as something he'd figure out later; Naruto began to shuffle over to the curtains before the door creaked open.

"Ah, good to see you're awake young man." The person said as wandered into the room. She was wearing a pair of long black trousers with a baggy cream shirt over which she wore a clean doctor's coat. In her right arm was a small clipboard. "Now, if you would kindly give your name. I do not like to refer to my patients as sir or miss."

"_Okay, not in Konoha then." _Naruto thought with a small frown. Everyone in Konoha could recognise him and if they didn't they would soon be told. A small cough interrupted his thoughts and he realised he had been standing there frowning for a few seconds too long.

"Oh, right. Names Naruto Uzumaki, doctor-san."

Seeing the doctor nod and jot down his name on the clipboard she carried, Naruto chose to ask his own question. "Umm, doctor-san where am I exactly? Did you bring me here?"

"Ah, you probably want quite a few questions answering, hmm? Well, right now you are in the Gremory clan estate, one of the guest rooms to be specific. To your second question, no, I did not. You have Rias-sama to thank for bringing you here and saving your life."

Before he was able to ask any more questions, the doctor turned abruptly and strode out of the room. Before closing the door however, she added, "Ah, Rias-sama has asked to be informed when you awake. Would you kindly remain in the room while she makes her way here."

Naruto shivered at her tone. While phrased as a question, it had held the tone of an order. It was rather similar to the doctors at the hospital in Konoha who routinely had to recapture escaping patients that basically promised that all of their doctor-ly powers would be used against them if they so much as thought of trying.

Huffing to himself, Naruto settled back onto the bed to wait for the woman who helped him.

He didn't have to wait long either. Only a few minutes passed before there was a knock at the door. One quick, "Come in," later and his saviour was revealed. Walking through the doorway was a really pretty young girl about his age with the most beautiful looking red coloured hair he had ever seen. She had blue eyes although Naruto found his eyes being drawn further south in a moment that had him cursing that pervert Jiraiya. Mentally shaking himself, he completed his scan of her by looking at her clothes. She wore a red long sleeved top over a white shirt with a dark blue skirt that and black tights. All in all, she cut a very pretty figure.

Meanwhile, Rias was looking at the boy, now known as Naruto Uzumaki to her, and had to say she was pleased. He was up and about sooner than expected and was clearly alert. She did notice however that on her entrance, he had not taken his eyes off of her. She smirked a little to herself. While not overly vain, she did take some pride in her appearance. Eventually, deciding that someone needed to begin the conversation, Rias spoke up.

"Greetings Uzumaki-kun. I am Rias Gremory." There, formal, to-the-point and it left him to ask his questions first.

"Um, hi Rias-chan. Thanks for saving me and stuff. So uh, where did you find me? Oh! Was there someone else with me? A guy with black hair and looks like a teme?"

"_Hmm, he got right into the swing of asking the questions at least. Why didn't he ask how I saved him though?"_ Rias thought mildly bemused. "Don't mention it, you were injured and I could help. To answer your questions, you appeared in a clearing not too far from here. There wasn't anyone else though."

She noticed how his eyes became downcast at her answer; clearly it had not been the one he had been hoping for.

"Oh, okay," he muttered before immediately brightening up and asking, "Well, thanks, but can someone tell me how to get back to Konoha, I need to see if all my friends are okay."

Rias frowned, she hadn't heard of this Konoha before. Still, she would be happy to help her new peerage member out.

"I'm sorry, I have never heard of Konoha before, is it a village in Japan somewhere?"

"Japan? Where's Japan? Also, how haven't you heard of Konoha? It's one of the five great villages in the Elemental Nations for crying out loud!"

"Again, I'm sorry but I haven't ever heard of these places. Are you sure that is what they are normally called?" Rias was a little confused. The way he spoke suggested this was common knowledge. Perhaps it was just another name for the area he lived?

"Course I'm sure. I'm not an idiot," he growled out. He was about to say something else before he suddenly stopped, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"_And the penny drops"_ Rias thought smirking slightly.

"How did you save me anyway? The doctor lady said you were the one who saved my life." There was a fair bit of suspicion in his voice. Everyone in the Elemental Nations knew of Konoha and the Land of Fire. Not to mention, she didn't look like that much of a healer and he knew even great medics couldn't completely remove all the aches and pains from an injury.

"Oh, that. I was wondering when you'd ask. You see, when I found you, your heart had stopped."

Naruto froze at that comment. That meant he had been dead from his fight with Sasuke. For however short a time it had been, Sasuke had killed him. He felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on him. Shaking his head, he silently urged her to continue with the story.

"Since you were dead, I used the only thing I had on hand and reincarnated you into a devil as a member of my peerage."

Whatever the answer Naruto had been expecting, that had not been it. Devil? Peerage? Was she talking about some sort of kinjutsu like what Orochi-teme used? Surely he wasn't an actual devil though, right? That would make him some kind of demon

"Uzumaki-kun?" Rias questioned worriedly. She knew from the stories of other peerages that not everyone took to the knowledge of being a devil well. Especially humans with no knowledge of the supernatural. Sure, her peerage had been fine, but they had all been aware of the supernatural at least and all had reasons to, at the very least, not mind becoming devils. Akeno had been fine, Koneko had wordlessly shrugged and Kiba had huffed. None of them had been terribly upset about it, although she did worry about Kiba sometimes. She briefly worried she might have revived some devout Christian although that was unlikely due to the lack of religious items on him.

Steeling herself, Rias unfurled her wings and allowed Naruto full view of them. Looking him square in the eye, she said, "This must be hard to accept for you. I understand if you have questions but you must understand what I say is true. In order to save your life, I reincarnated you into a member of my peerage, which turned you into a devil. I can't change you back, not without killing you."

Idly, Naruto noticed that a similar set of wings had unfurled from his back as well. "What… what is a peerage?"

"A peerage is a group of servants that have been reincarnated into a devil by high class devils like myself." Rias answered matter-of-factly. She quickly realised she may have phrased that wrong when Naruto glared at her, apparently over the whole, "I'm a devil now"-thing for the time being. Small victories she supposed. He was no longer in denial.

"Oi, now listen here tomato-chan! Naruto Uzumaki does not take orders from anyone 'cept Baa-chan and you ain't Baa-chan." _"And Kakashi-sensei"_ he mentally added.

Tomato-chan?! Not even five minutes and he was already insulting her! How dare he insult her family's hair!

"Now you listen here you, I don't know who this "Baa-chan" is but you are now a member of my peerage and as such you will be expected to follow my commands. And my first order is to not call me Tomato-chan!" She finished with a huff. Ordinarily, she would probably have thought through how that sounded a little more but she was a little annoyed at the tomato comment to really care.

"Yeah, well screw you Tomato-_kun,_" cue grinding teeth, "I'll find my own way back and there is nothing you got that'll make me stay!" Sadly for Naruto, his stomach chose to disagree with that as a loud gurgle sounded.

Smirking at the now blushing blonde, Rias said, "Well, if you feel like that then I will just tell the staff not to save any food for you." As she turned to leave the room she added, "Although, if you feel like it, get changed and come downstairs and we might be able to spare something."

Watching the redhead walk out of the room, Naruto brought his blush under control before settling down to think. On one hand, Rias had food, shelter and information, three things he needed. On the other hand, she called him a servant with no choice on his part and expected him to simply do what she says. He barely did that with Tsunade baa-chan and she was his Hokage! If he had been a smarter person, he'd have called it practicality against pride. He scowled when his stomach grumbled, clearly upset that he hadn't taken the choice for food already.

Walking over to the dresser, he decided on two things. One he needed to at least be nicer to her, if only for food and information. Second, he needed to find a way back home. Maybe Tsunade could turn him back to normal. He didn't really think about whether she may or may not be able to. She was the world's greatest medic. She would cure him of whatever Rias had done.

Meanwhile, Rias thought over what she had said. She realised he had taken issue with the servant title of being in a peerage and her losing her temper – she did not share a look like a tomato – had stopped her from properly explaining everything. Inwardly sighing, she realised she would have to apologise for blowing up like that, explain properly and ideally introduce him to the other peerage members. Hopefully that would get her new rook too calm down.

Another thought she had was whether Grayfia was busy or not. She was a devil after all. A little petty revenge wouldn't go amiss.

**AN: Would you believe this was supposed to come out last week?**

**Yeah, this got stuck in development hell. The dialog and Naruto finding out he is a devil were the main problems really. I didn't want Naruto to simply accept this but my first few attempts resulted in awkward, stilted conversation that didn't flow well and could easily have been spoken by robots. So in other words, the way I feel most normal conversations I have go.**

**My original idea had involved Naruto thinking he was in some kind of genjutsu by Orochimaru and running off. I realised though that Rias and her family could track him easily and the reasons I had for not simply teleporting to him like she did with Issei had been the mental equivalent of grasping at straws. It also didn't help that part of the plan involved Naruto and Rias being attacked by a stray devil or monster. I just could not justify seeing as this is the home of a Maou and it reminded too much of that ItachixRias fic that I didn't like terribly. What was it called? Oh, Sharingan of the Crimson Princess. I do recommend it, even if it is solely for the fact that the author has at least a few original ideas (I say this with no knowledge as to whether the add-ons are original or just other anime stuff) and is brave enough to do something different even if I feel that it loses traction somewhat later on.**

**On the plus side, I have discovered the way to motivate myself into writing and having ideas. Sleep deprivation! This won't go horribly wrong.**

**Anyway, don't expect these issues between Naruto and Rias to last too long. I am more using this to set up his interaction with the other peerage members than anything else. I am not confident I can make them believably fight for too long since I feel Rias would go to ask for advice and someone should be able to tell her how what she said could set someone off while Naruto just can't stay mad at someone unless you have a snake theme.**

**I still feel that the conversation between Naruto and Rias was awkward as hell, but I feel like it is a big improvement. Guess I'll find out later if I can make them seem more at ease with each other.**

**Word count at 4,130 of story this time. Here's hoping it is actually good.**

**I also hope I can actually get the next chapter out when I plan to next time.**

**Well, that's that. Miskwisk out!**

**P.S. Reviews are love! Make love not war!**


	3. Chapter 3

Living with the Devil

Chapter 3: Talking with the devil

**Well, here is the next update. I am pleased that I managed to respond to reviews quickly this time instead of waiting two weeks before figuring out what I wanted to say.**

**Guest who invoked Godwin's law: I am not quite sure why you have the impression I think slavery is okay. I do plan on addressing the relationships and I didn't just have Naruto be okay what had happened either. I am also trying (probably failing) to bring up the fact that they have different morals and cultures which cause friction because that is what happens with this sort of thing. To your second point, I do actually have an explanation in this chapter. Of course, I do have a suspicion this is a flame (if not, apologies) or a general rant at the whole DxD fandom in which case fine, but please label it as such next time.**

**Anyway, on with the show.**

**Oh, by the way, I do not own Naruto or High School DxD. If I did, I wouldn't be in university accommodation.**

* * *

><p>Ophis was not in a good mood.<p>

She had ultimately lost to the Great Red, as galling as it was to admit, and been driven from the rift again. Her plan had failed.

Worse, she had lost quicker than normal. As it turned out, trying to use a new power you just got in a fight with absolutely no training whatsoever is a horrible idea. You just will not be able to use it efficiently and any effort to do so during the fight will ultimately make you weaker and a sitting duck.

So here she was, cooped up in one of her Khaos Brigades small bases in the form of a small black-haired girl in a gothic style dress with a large source of power and no real clue what to do with it. She could train with it, a notion she immediately discarded as she was the Infinite Dragon God, she did not train.

That left her second idea. The power she had taken was very distinct. She knew what it was. Chakra. The power source of Youkai. Her Khaos Brigade had quite a few Youkai, they would be quite happy for a gift from her. That however left the question of who to give it to and how to split it up. She could divide it up between as many as possible but then the power would be too diluted. Not to mention a good number of the weaker ones would probably lose control of even the fraction they were given.

On the other hand, her favoured idea in fact, was to give it to a few Youkai she could trust to maintain control over the power and continue to serve her. She felt this was the ideal choice really. The elites would be able to use the power best.

She would have to put some safeguards on any solution though. For some reason, the power still had a mild connection to the source. She didn't really want to have something running around with a homing beacon directly to her forces. She briefly pondered grabbing or killing the source, but grabbing it would mean having to look after it as she was quite sure it wouldn't join after she took so much power from it. Meanwhile, she didn't want to kill it either. The amount she had now was still drawing from the original source. So long as it remained, her section of the power would never run out. No, killing it or grabbing it was just too much hassle for what it was actually worth.

However, if she left it running around, it would make a good prize for her servants to go for and a challenge for them to overcome. If they couldn't beat the creature that originally held this power then clearly she had overestimated her servants. Likewise, if they won and the power didn't fade, then they could decide what to do with the power. It would make a good incentive.

Eventually, she decided. She would give the power to two of her servants. This would mean that if the source ever decided to come back for it's power, her servants would be evenly matched in terms of raw power. It would also keep a balance of sorts as the two would seek to beat the other while staying in her good graces. A rivalry that would encourage their growth and keep the other Youkai in line.

Allowing a small smirk to slip onto her face, she began thinking of who to give the power to. She already had one candidate, she just needed one more.

* * *

><p>It was two hours later that Naruto was finally able to get some food.<p>

He would have had some sooner, but he had the distinct feeling that Rias had planned his little detour –scratch that, from her smirk she definitely had – with the very scary silver haired maid.

He had only called her Tomato-kun once and that maid had descended on him like a bat out of hell, _"Heh,that suits her"_.

He had about one second before the maid had practically yanked his ear off about how he needs to show some respect, which he had tuned out, before he finally snapped and told the old bat to back off before she deafens him.

He will forever maintain he did not scream as her aura turned black without even a twitch from her face. Grayfia-san, as the woman had tersely told him was her name, had proceeded to drag him to a small room by his ear, scolding him the whole way, before using some ice technique to freeze his hands and feet to the floor in an… uncomfortable position. She had then told him the ice would melt in a couple of hours and that he should think on what is and is not appropriate to say before leaving him with the lovely company of the corner of an empty room. Well, he says empty, he had caught a glimpse of a red-headed man in another corner crying with what appeared to be a small dark cloud over his head. He thought better to not ask.

His time-out, other than giving him one of the worst cases of pins and needles he had ever had, did allow him to do one thing though. He didn't exactly want to do it, but he didn't really have a choice. After all, according to the girl he had died, in which case he should probably check the Kyūbi is still there and maybe ask why he hadn't saved his life.

_Flashback_

Naruto immediately noticed the differences in the seal as he entered his mind. The, normally, somewhat well-maintained had numerous cracks and fissures running through the walls. The water level wasn't dropping like he'd expected it to from all the cracks, but it had dropped. Indeed, whereas before the water at least covered a foot without water walking, now it only achieved making the underside of his foot wet.

Shrugging it off as unimportant for now, he made a quick walk to the cage that held the bastard fox. He was a little confused when he arrived though. He could have sworn the room was bigger.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto yelled, "Oi! Kyūbi, you in there?!"

"**GO AWAY!"**

That was a surprise to Naruto. There were no threats, no angry taunts. There was no sudden gust of wind either. Just "go away". It was an unusually short answer from the Fox. And was it quieter too? It hadn't even come out of the darkness like usual.

"Oi bastard. Get out here where I can see ya!"

"**No."**

Again, barely a response from the creature that rarely missed an opportunity to mock him. He'd have thought the Fox would have had a field day with the situation he is in now.

"Bastard, don't ignore me! Come out so I can see ya, we got things we need to talk about."

"**Go away. I do not answer to you and I have no wish to be seen either."**

Well that was telling. Why would such a proud thing as the Kyūbi suddenly not want to be seen?

"Just come out already, dattebayo! Sooner we get this done with, the sooner I can leave you alone. 'Sides, I never thought the almighty Kyūbi had stage fright. Is that why you attacked Konoha, cos you were upset someone peaked on you?"

Let it be known the Kyūbi knew when someone was playing it. Unfortunately, it knew, and so did Naruto apparently, that an insult to his pride was going to get a response.

"**Little brat! I am the all-powerful ****K****yūbi no Kitsune! All beings tremble before me! Just like you did when we first met!"**

The Kyūbi punctuated this with a strong gust of wind, oddly weaker than Naruto expected, before wandering out of the darkness.

But it wasn't quite the Kyūbi Naruto remembered. For starters, this one was a little smaller. Okay, a lot smaller. It was only about a third of it's size in fact. It appeared thinner too and it's fur had lost a good deal of its lustre leaving it with an appearance of a dying animal. It was even huffing as though it was tired.

Another thing Naruto noticed though, was the aura that flickered in and out of existence. The red outline appeared to perfectly match the Kyūbi's original appearance before vanishing suddenly. In the brief moments as it formed and faded, he noticed thin wisps of chakra pulsing out and disappearing into the strange crimson aura.

"**If you are quite done gawking at me, just say whatever it is you want and get out."** Kyūbi grumbled. He hadn't been paying any attention to the annoying brat as he was trying to sort out his own problems right now.

"Now hold on a second, what the hell happened to you?"

"**I'm glad you asked. What happened is I got sealed inside some idiotic meat bag who is in the running for most creative suicides. From what I can tell, you even thought ahead on that front. If only you could apply that forethought to more productive things."**

"What the hell are you talking about, I didn't try to kill myself?" Naruto brushed off the insult. People had called him an idiot for a long while and the Kyūbi was going to be the last person to stop. Shouting now wouldn't get him answers.

"**Don't you lie to me, brat. Because of you that rotten Uchiha landed a fatal blow because you refused to hurt him. I count that as suicidal. I don't know what you did after that, but somehow you took your stupidity a step further and managed to lose me almost exactly two-thirds of my power. I can't even recover any more!" **

That was odd. He had lost two-thirds of the Kyūbi's chakra. How? He hadn't drawn on enough to do that and he certainly didn't want to try.

"How'd you lose all that chakra? And what do you mean you can't recover anymore?"

"**How the hell should I know? All I know is that as we went through that weird place, something grabbed and took two-thirds of my power. I have tried to regain it or even just refill my stores but every time I try, my chakra hits a limit before dispersing in two separate directions." **In all honesty, the Kyūbi was mystified. He had never had his power split like that before bar the night of the sealing and that had the benefit of having an even split into yin and yang. **"Not to mention my control is screwed to hell. I couldn't even heal your dumbass from however you managed to harm yourself. Good timing by the way. Remind me to thank whoever saved us with a quick death when I get out"**

"Not my fault someone decided that they wanted to launch me at the ground." Naruto grumbled before refocusing on the earlier information. "So, what do you mean your chakra is disappearing in two directions?"

"**Dispersing dumbass."** The Kyūbi corrected. **"I mean every time I try to gather more than a certain amount of chakra, it gets pulled away from me to two other locations. I don't know how, but my body will only carry one third of my chakra and I blame you for this."**

Naruto frowned. From the sounds of it, something was taking the Kyūbi's chakra like it was from a leaky tub. His thoughts were cut off though by the Kyūbi once again though.

"**So, what is different about you anyway? I'm sensing this weird energy from you."**

Seeing no reason to argue, as well as a small hope the Kyūbi might be able to do something, Naruto explained what had happened. How some red-haired girl had saved him – he missed the Kyūbi's grimace – by turning him into a devil. How she hadn't heard of Konoha, the Hokage or the Land of Fire. Finally, he mentioned the peerage and how he was apparently now expected to be a servant.

Looking up at the silent Kyūbi, he saw a large grin on it's face as it barely restrained itself from laughing at him.

"Oi, what's so funny?"

"**Oh, I'm just glad to see the shoe is on the other foot here." **Before Naruto could question that, the Kyūbi finally lost it's battle and burst out laughing. **"Oh by the Sage this is too good! Hahaha! So much for proving your humanity, eh brat?"**

"Screw you, I'll get out of this deal, find a way back and get Baa-chan to cure me!" This however caused the Kyūbi to laugh at him even harder. Before he could ask though, the Kyūbi anticipated him.

"**Hah! You idiot, there is no way out. Devils are just demons and no self-respecting demon leaves out loopholes for things like this. Second, you don't even know where we are, how would we make it back? And thirdly," **the grin took on a significantly darker look, **"There is no way to ****_"cure"_**** you."**

"The hell do you mean there's no cure?!" Naruto shouted. There had to be a cure. If there wasn't then he would find one. How would the Kyūbi know anyway?

"**Pah, idiot. Whatever that Rias girl did affected your very soul. You are now a devil down to your soul and there is noth-." **Here the Kyūbi stopped, taking on a thoughtful look before the grin darkened once again. **"Well, there is one way back."**

"I'm not letting you out." Naruto deadpanned. His facial expression dropped however when the Kyūbi started chuckling to itself.

"**Oh no brat, even I can't work on something like the soul. I can't help you at all. However, I do know something that can."**

"What?" Naruto cautiously asked, eyes narrowed.

"**Shiki Fūjin"**

A chill ran up Naruto's spine. Ero-sennin had given him a brief run-down of the seal the Yondaime had used to subdue the Kyūbi. Of how it summoned the Death God himself to lay down one of the strongest seals possible and quite possibly the strongest possible to perform in a short time with only a single user. And how it was always fatal.

"How?"

"**The ****Shiki Fūjin seals the soul itself. I, and that snake, am proof however that it can also pull the soul apart. Perhaps if you found some sort of willing sacrificial lamb, you could pull the devil parts right out of your soul. There is no guarantee you'd survive of course but it is the only choice you have if you want to become human."**

Silence reigned for a few seconds. Then, "Are you kidding me?!" Naruto exclaimed, eyes wide. "There's no way in hell I'd do that. I'm not gonna kill someone just to become human again, dattebayo!"

"**Are you sure about that? Well then, I guess you'd better get used to being a servant."** It's piece said, the Kyūbi prepared to leave the human alone. However, it stopped to add one thing, **"Also, don't be so high and mighty brat.** **For** **a second there, you. Considered. It." **And with that, the Kyūbi returned to the darkness of its cell, chuckling to itself as it left a horror struck Naruto behind.

In two hours of thought, he never managed to fully deny what the Kyūbi had said.

_Flashback_

Following that discussion, Naruto had sat and thought on his options. So far, he had decided on a few things. First, get some food. Second, find a way home. And third, find a way to become human without the Shiki Fūjin. He would not prove the Kyūbi right no matter what.

After two hours had passed, the ice had indeed melted enough to break free (followed by an intense chakra pulsing session to regain something other than a burning pins and needles feeling) and Grayfia-san, he internally cringed in horror that she had already got him being respectful in his head, appeared to pick him up. He briefly considered asking about the red-haired man, who hadn't left his spot, but Grayfia-san merely fixed him with an icy glare ending that line of inquiry. He promptly decided it was every man for himself here.

Upon properly greeting Rias-sama, who managed to pull off a smug look combined with a small grimace somehow, was he finally allowed to sit and eat.

Apparently, the cooks were used to serving up large portions and somehow had kept his food warm even though people had finished eating a while ago. While it wasn't ramen, he found he couldn't bring himself to care as the beef teriyaki was delicious. Well, after Grayfia-san scolded him for poor table manners anyway. And threatened to give him etiquette lessons should he not improve.

Still, he was a little surprised. He had seen most people eating with cutlery earlier. Had they gone out of their way to make him food he would be most comfortable with? He was especially surprised to see Rias had dropped the smug look and was instead chatting happily with a pretty black-haired girl by the name of Akeno. Was she a servant too?

It wasn't what he was expecting. From what he could tell, had he not got grabbed by Grayfia-san anyway, she had planned to eat with him. All the places had been laid after all. Servants didn't eat with their masters, did they? Maybe it was a special occasion? Like him joining, perhaps? But that couldn't be right, if it had been then they would have waited for him and at least introduced themselves. Maybe it was just a different culture? They certainly weren't like the people of Konoha.

For Rias' part, she kept to herself and Akeno, leaving herself in plain view to get Naruto curious. While she had enjoyed watching Naruto fall foul of Grayfia, she honestly hadn't actually prepared that, it had meant she could not show that she thought of her peerage as family with a nice meal. Instead, she had followed Akeno's advice and had Japanese food prepared for him and kept warm with magic. Hopefully, it would work as a show of good faith and they could talk properly. She certainly did not need a third awkward peerage member to add onto Koneko and Kiba.

She had even gone to Souji her brother's knight, to ask his advice about appealing to someone from a Japanese culture. She felt she got some good advice too. Apparently, Souji had said that if he was a fighter like she thought then she needed to show she wasn't a threat and make the first few steps towards friendship but ultimately leave the decision up to him. That way, he would know she didn't mean to insult him but not make him feel forced into servitude. As he had gone onto explain, no samurai with honour would serve if they felt like the master was forcing them to. While she doubted Naruto was a samurai, she did agree to avoid forcing the issue and instead let Naruto decide to come to her.

He had, however, told her to try and find out from Naruto as soon as possible where the offence lay exactly and try to clear up the misunderstanding. Sensible, but it still needed saying to remind her. She only needed to figure out how; although she was pretty sure she knew where the problem was.

So the three sat in the small room, with Naruto listening to Rias and Akeno chat calmly about whatever came to their minds.

Surprisingly, it had been Akeno to break the silence between Naruto and Rias.

"Ara, ara. So this is the famous Uzumaki-kun our dear Rias-sama saved, hmm?"

Naruto flushed at her sweet smile and tilted his head down in a failed attempt to conceal his face. Seeing this, she chuckled lightly before continuing.

"And so bold too. I don't know anyone who would call Rias-sama 'Tomato-kun' or Grayfia-san an 'old bat.' The scream was quite a good touch too. Ufufufu."

Both Rias and Naruto stared at her shocked.

"Oi, I did not scream. Besides, she snuck up on me." Naruto announced jumping to his feet.

"Oh dear, did my new cute otouto get scared. Don't worry your new oneesan will look after you." Akeno said with a disarming smile.

"I wasn't scared." Naruto muttered. Damn it was hard to stay mad at her. "What are you talking about anyway? We're not related."

Rias saw what Akeno was doing now, she had created an opening and she was sure as hell going to take it.

"She means in the peerage. While some view reincarnated devils as servants, most see them as good friends. My family and I however see our peerage as one big family."

Naruto turned to her and snapped, although she could tell it was more of a show at the moment for some reason, "So, you just go around and grab people then. Find the dead and bring them back to join your 'family' without caring about what they think?"

Naruto had all but spat the word family like it was poison, but Rias was on a roll here.

"Not at all. The vast majority of reincarnations involve people willingly making deals with devils. The few that aren't usually involve those who die early in some way, like you did. In those cases, we try to keep disruption of that person's life to a minimum so they can ease themselves into their new lifestyle. Devil's have lived among humans for hundreds of years now. We are no longer the monsters you have heard us described as. Besides, I really couldn't have saved you any other way."

"But I'm still a servant. I still have to follow your orders." Naruto was quiet now. It was clear he had misunderstood initially. Thought she had grabbed him simply because he was there or because of the Kyūbi to be a weapon, a slave. Now however, it seemed she hadn't wanted a slave at all, just another family member. Naruto couldn't say he wasn't tempted. Family was something he was after for years and now he was being told he was in one? He kept telling himself she was only after the Kyūbi, that she would throw him aside, that if he had been anyone else he would have been left to die. Yet, that little part of him, that little, lonely boy from the orphanage kept saying to take the chance. That it didn't matter what she was, just that she cared. He idly wondered if this was how Haku had felt about Zabuza.

"Actually you don't." This startled Akeno as well as Naruto this time.

"What do you mean?"

"While you would have to be watched since you are my responsibility, if you truly do not want to be a part of my peerage then we can arrange something else. There are cases where a reincarnated devil has opposed the change enough to request certain options. While these will not turn you back, they will let you live on as though you never met us."

Akeno was stunned at this. What Rias had just suggested was mainly used if a devil reincarnated someone who is highly religious and would cause problems. The solution was often to cover the person in seals and wipe their memory of the event. As punishment though, the King in question would never get a replacement piece as well as the shame of the event. Cases like Naruto, while fundamentally different, were treated the same regardless as a punishment for a lack of foresight in young devils.

In other words, Rias had just offered him an out at here own expense.

Naruto on the other hand was stunned. She was giving him a choice? Devils didn't do that. Devils were monsters that stole the souls of humans and encouraged corruption wherever they went. They weren't nice, weren't this sincere. Where was the catch?

"There is no catch." Rias said, indicating he had just spoken out loud. "The method involves the use of various spells to suppress the item used to revive you so it doesn't affect you anymore than keeping you alive and, if you wished, we could even clear your memories so you won't even know anything changed. You will be a human in heart and mind, you will even age normally."

Naruto stood there, the anger at being revived to be a servant now extinguished. Instead there was uncertainty. If he accepted, agreed to be a member of her peerage, he would get people who accepted him regardless of the Kyūbi; after all, devils wouldn't fear him, maybe be a little curious, but fear? No. He would find a place to belong. Akeno had been friendly to him and had apparently already accepted him as well. She was even being sincere as far as he could tell. Likewise, despite the childish insults and the none too subtle glares he had been shooting her, Rias was willing to accept him despite the first impressions being so poor.

Even then, Rias had been kind enough to explain a way out if he really wanted to. While he was suspicious of the method, memory wiping wasn't something he thought fondly of, she hadn't hidden anything from him. Maybe she hadn't said everything, but that was merely because he hadn't asked and he knew. She was hiding nothing from him.

As the thought came to him, he suddenly became depressed. How many people could he honestly say that about? His Jiji had hidden the Kyūbi from him and had refused to ever tell him about his parents. He knew why, or at least the reasoning for the Kyūbi, there was just no real way to bring that up in a conversation and he hadn't wanted Naruto to ever worry about it. It wasn't the best method but it had given him the chance to enjoy some normality as a kid even if it wasn't a lot.

Ero-sennin too. As a member of the Sannin, he would have known things about him. Secrets that if Naruto had asked, he would have been told no. He was a spymaster, if he didn't have them, he could get them. But he wouldn't have told Naruto. Hell, he only told Naruto about the Akatsuki after they had tried to grab him. If Sasuke hadn't turned up, he could well be missing a limb or too thanks to fish-face.

Not to mention there was the doubt. Would these people; Iruka, Jiraiya, Teuchi and Jiji. Would they have even bothered being nice to him if he weren't the container of the Kyūbi? And how many things did they hide from him because he '_wasn't ready_' or '_it was too dangerous_' or his personal favourite '_I don't know._' Even the other shinobi had outside forces pushing them to at least be professional to him.

He wasn't mad at them, they had all come to be family to him, but had any of them made that initial effort for him or for the Kyūbi container? The rookies may not have known, but at the end of the day, had the friendships only come about because they had to be? And why was this girl he just met, this devil, so willing to do what no one had really done before. To just accept him as he was and befriend him. Maybe it was just because she revived him and has a vested interest in him, but that was better than her doing so because she wanted to keep an eye on a timer to know when to run.

Maybe she just wanted him for his abilities? But how could she know? She could be a sensor, sure, but he knew that a whole lot of power wasn't worth much if you couldn't use it. Even then, she didn't know about the Kyūbi otherwise she would have mentioned something. As such, it was only his abilities she was after. Not the Kyūbi containers, Naruto Uzumaki's.

But accepting her offer would be turning down any chance to even pretend to be human. Sure, it would just be a repeat of the Kyūbi again, but he would be able to live as normal a life as possible for a jinchuriki shinobi. Worse, if he accepted, everything the villagers had said behind his back. He would be a true flesh and blood demon and everything that he had worked for these past few years would be worthless. It would be like saying the villagers were right all along, that he was happier with 'his own kind' as they would no doubt say if they ever knew.

Slowly, Naruto looked up and Rias saw his deep, ocean blue eyes, lost in thought. He opened his mouth only to close it a second later before shaking his head. Trying again, he asked, "Can I… get some time to think it over?"

"Of course, take as much time as you need." Quickly adding, "Oh, if you need to, just ask the servants about sleeping arrangements and they'll take you to a fresh room."

Naruto suppressed another wince. Someone was waiting for his decision and didn't care how long it took. It was quite different from Konoha. Saying nothing else, he turned and walked out of the door.

Once Naruto was gone, Rias turned to Akeno.

"Thank you for starting up that conversation, I think he might have been stubborn enough to take weeks to open up."

"Ara, ara. It was no problem Rias-sama. It was worth it to see your faces."

Rias grimaced again. It couldn't have been a flattering shot.

"Still Rias-sama, did you mean what you said about letting him return to a normal life?" Here, Akeno's face twisted in concern. Rias' standing would take a huge blow if she did so and she would never get a second chance to fill that slot.

"Akeno, each member of my peerage is a brother or sister to me. I will not force them into a state where they resent me and themselves. If any of you had truly wished to not be a devil after I reincarnated you, I would have done the same."

As she said this, Akeno noticed Rias shrink slightly into herself. It was clear that she was worried that Naruto would still refuse. She had been so excited to meet him when she brought him back. Even after that disastrous first meeting, she hadn't been discouraged. In fact, she had been even more excited; she wanted to bring him into their family enough to do whatever it took to encourage him and spoke as sincerely as she could.

The idea that he, or any of her peerage, would ultimately choose to reject her offer of friendship was extremely upsetting to her.

Frowning to herself, Akeno eyed the doorway Naruto had gone out of; wondering if there was anything else she could do to make him give Rias a chance.

* * *

><p>Ajuka Beelzebub was an odd devil.<p>

A recluse, he spent most days cooped up inside his lab, which he had insisted be designed with a haunted castle motif, tinkering away with his inventions. Most of the time, him leaving was simply due to needing to fill a certain task as one of the four Maou. He personally didn't care for the position, but Sirzechs was his friend and he needed someone other than Grayfia to look after him. By the Original Four was that true.

The other times he left was either due to something interesting happening or an experiment blowing up. Often a combination of the two in fact.

He didn't dress like a normal Maou either (although some did ask what a "normal" Maou would dress like). He wore simple blue jeans with a plain, long-sleeved black top. All in all, he looked like the kind of guy you would pass on the street without any thought.

Now though, he was staring intently at one of his many bizarre machines. He had made it ages ago to try and scan for abnormalities in the dimensional gap without any actual connection that he would need to protect. It had failed obviously. Without anything actually linking it to the gap 24/7, the device was useless and had been forgotten about.

About two hours ago though, the thing had started beeping. Unfortunately, without actually knowing which machine was beeping (he was beginning to see why Grayfia was always telling him to clear up) he had been forced to check through every machine he had to find it.

It was definitely worth it though. The machine had pinpointed a series of holes in the gap that opened up into various places throughout the Underworld. There were enough to make him wonder if he should have made one in the human world too so he could compare results.

Suddenly however, one rift, near the Gremory estate he noted with a wry grin, flared before closing quickly. While the rifts continued to form and close for another half an hour, this one stayed, as though it hadn't been shut properly although he was fairly sure that without the initial opening being caught, he would never have noticed it.

This was certainly interesting. Perhaps he should pay Sirzechs a visit? He hadn't had an excuse for a while and this rift was unique.

Nodding to himself, he reasoned that a break was a good idea and began to make preparations to see this rift. And visit his friend he supposed.

This is what he would have done, had the experiment he had left unattended for two and a half hours decided to overheat and begin exploding. Resigning himself to damage control first, Satan Blue got to work cleaning up the Tuesday mess.

**AN: And done.**

**My first chapter that is not a product of sleep deprivation. Clocking in with a word count of 5,636 I am beginning to wonder when I will start writing chapters of a consistent length.**

**So, a couple of things happened here. Ophis is working with Kurama's chakra (see if you can spot the part where I descended into a small rant then decided to keep it), while Naruto and Rias are working out their problems. Meanwhile, Ajuka is planning to visit.**

**A couple of things, first to the guest I responded to above, I hope I explained why Naruto died with the ****K****urama regardless of the healing. If not, a better explanation would be ****Kurama had very poor chakra control and was a little too focused on his missing chakra to actually look after Naruto. As a result, his empowered healing was no longer good enough to survive exhaustion, travelling through an interdimensional void and smashing into the ground at near terminal velocity. I suppose I should add that there has also never been a case of a jinchuriki losing most of their biju (bar maybe that clusterfuck with Madara but that got so messed up I am not sure) so that is a bit of a problem too.**

**For Kurama himself, he is going to be working on getting his power back since he is now at a sixth of his full strength thanks to him being carved up so much. To properly explain the power dispersing constantly, it is taken from the fact that his power didn't seem to return after Minato took half of his chakra. Now, should he attempt to force his reserves past the new threshold for him, all extra chakra over his max amount will go to whoever has his other chakra.**

**I am not entirely sure I did a good job explaining Naruto's thought process in his little monologue and I may redo that at a later date. The easiest way I can explain it is it is similar to Rias' problem, that she doesn't feel people look at her as Rias. One thing that I feel should really have been touched on in canon is whether Naruto felt people were nice to him because they had to be, because they needed to be nice to the container. While they would have eventually come to like the knucklehead, he still isn't sure if the only reason they care is because of Kurama. Rias on the other hand knows nothing about him. His strength is his own and she is trying to get to know Naruto Uzumaki as Naruto Uzumaki, not the Kyūbi jinchuriki.**

**The Shiki Fūjin being a possible cure was actually something I came up with while typing which I really liked. I was going to have Kurama say that it is a part of his soul now and there was no way to rip apart a soul and live. Then I remembered who was talking. And then I remembered Orochimaru and thought of that. Rias' memory wipe was another thing I came up with as part of her attempt to encourage Naruto to give her a chance. I am fairly sure there will be a problem if a big Christian became a devil and while I think they would probably just kill the guy, I felt that the changing culture of the devils would make that unpopular really quickly. It also wouldn't take too much effort to come up with either. Unlike reincarnation, the soul isn't changed, just repressed and without memories they can act like normal humans. Hell, with the seals on the evil piece (which I had Rias specifically avoid saying to Naruto because I really hate that phrase) would in theory stop all but a high class angel from sensing the person. Praising God however would be a small issue though, so it could be considered a punishment for Christians. It is also up to the King to decide anyway so if the King decides they want a Christian slave (*cough*Diodora*cough*) then there really isn't much stopping them. It is more a PR stunt for reincarnated devils anyway.**

**On the ending, it was okay. I feel like Naruto was the dog from Of Mice and Men at this point. I'm sad to see it go but I think it would have been cruel to keep it going. Things were okay, kind of wished Sasuke got a bigger kick up the ass even if Kishi was never going to kill him. I hate most of the kids names, where the hell did ChoujixKarui come from and, ugh, fat Anko. I will say I am glad NaruxHina is canon but I will agree that could have had a hell of a lot more development.**

**Well, that should be everything. I think the dialogue and writing in general flowed better in this chapter. Next up is an introduction of a future canon character and Naruto's decision. I want to be corny and do the narrator question thing but I am fairly sure I will get shouted at for that.**

**Till next time!**

**Miskwisk.**

**P.S. If I make a mistake, please point it out. I don't really want a repeat of my last one where I added four more ninja villages to the Land of Fire.**** Anyway, review!**


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